


Cold Silence

by Blizzarin



Series: Everyday Stories in the Queendom of Xelha [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Xelha - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21671866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzarin/pseuds/Blizzarin
Summary: All temperatures are recorded in Celsius
Series: Everyday Stories in the Queendom of Xelha [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562341





	Cold Silence

**Author's Note:**

> All temperatures are recorded in Celsius

The cold and Xelha go together like boats and water. I always find it amusing when foreign workers or students experience their first Xelhan winter and the temperatures dip to twenty below zero. Especially ones that do their research and see the misguiding average of one below zero. I'm not sure what those jokers at Mountaintop Observers and Meteorologists measure with, but it can't be the same thermometers that I use. And definitely not including wind chill factor. Although I suppose perhaps without the wind we'd be warmer, but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Most Xelhan kids have been napping outside in minus twenty and thirty temps, and schools and government offices still let you outside until minus forty. Maybe that's why the average Xelhan laughs at most cold weather jokes, myself included. We're being raised in subzero winters as a way of life.

But there is another reason I like the cold, dead nights of winter. Listen. All you can hear is silence.

Even in a city like Valen, below a certain temperature, the tourists and locals alike begin to stay indoors. The sidewalks slowly empty, and the roads eventually become bare. On these nights, the only sounds that you hear is the crunching of snow underfoot and your own thoughts in your head. I always remember hearing people talking about quiet spaces. Synelia Ocelot has the National Library, High Queen Tsuyu has her Botanical Garden, even Rufus has his Pagoda. But no matter where you are in Xelha, the one constant is the cold, and with that cold comes silence.

Which for me is good, because I don't much like large crowds. The number of friends I had in school i could count on one hand. Though I may have been from a prestigious family, I didn't like the limelight, preferring to let my other siblings fight over it. A household with three siblings doesn't leave much room for quiet. Three overachieving siblings afforded even less quiet. But I found two places they did not like; the lab and the cold. I personally would have been happy to be a lab rat, stuck in a lab working on equations and experiments. Geology also afforded quiet space, but that required teams, which often meant you didn't have complete quiet time. And as with the household, you never knew what type of ego would surface with the team. Mom and to a lesser degree dad however, would not let it stand that even one of his kids did not live up to the Lin name. Their child would not be locked away in a lab, nor lost in the wilderness, so I was forced joined politics and eventually took over mom's seat in the House of Nobles. Not that I minded. Despite some of my reservations about politics, it didn't require the constant yelling and oration of a lawyer, nor did it require the constant ups and downs of medicine. I am also fortunate that most of the year I only deal with sixteen people... thirty three at max. Compared to the hundreds in other nations, it is indeed a small mercy. But once those sessions are over, there is no rush to go anywhere or do anything. I can walk along the roads of Blizzaria. You'd be surprised how quiet a capital can get when the temperatures drop below minus twenty degrees. Cold and Silence, that's all I need. One friend perhaps is acceptable as well. But as I walk through the cold, quiet night, I can't say I miss that lack of company.

Eventually, winter will give way to summer. And with summer will bring back the hustle and bustle of a nation trying to beat the clock and get everything done before winter comes again. There won't be many silent nights during those short summer nights. But I can take solace that just as winter gave way to summer, summer too will yield once more to winter. And when winter comes, I will be able to go for my walks again. In the calm, quiet, dead nights of winter.


End file.
